How do you know when its time to upgrade or replace your SCADA system?

By: Allan Evora

Let’s begin with why you would upgrade your supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. In a word, security. Older systems simply cannot address modern security challenges. Threat actors can attempt to disrupt control functions as well as steal data. Industries like banking, healthcare, and energy that provide critical services and store personal information are obvious candidates for SCADA upgrades. But there are many other vulnerable types of businesses – from manufacturing facilities and transportation networks to data centers located in building complexes with other tenants.

Replace or retrofit. 

Replacing a SCADA system from the ground up is costly and can be an overwhelming undertaking. Retrofitting is often the better choice, but this is a very specialized process. Affinity Energy is an experienced integrator who understands what it takes to upgrade an existing SCADA system. We offer multiple approaches and can tailor various elements to create a customized solution that serves the needs of a particular business. And we’re going to provide you with several important points to consider.

Choosing the correct system.

You can opt for numerous SCADA upgrades, but we encourage our customers to upgrade to an open architecture system that will not unduly constrain them in the future. Scalability along with flexible or unlimited software licensing are much better long-term options. 

When recommending a SCADA upgrade, it’s important for us to consider every possible factor. We’re not just integrating machines, computers, and networks. We’re integrating our solutions with unique organizations. As such, we must match the software to both the facility needs and the human operator needs. At Affinity Energy, we work with many power plant customers with on-staff engineers and highly trained operators who learn the intricacies of their SCADA system. We also have customers with much more diverse staffs whose members are not specialists in SCADA or other industrial control systems. It’s our job to help each customer decide what the most effective solution is and how that system will be used.

Real-world examples.

We have a healthcare customer with a large hospital with its own central energy plant (CEP). They wanted to improve the security and reliability of their system while also being able to do their analysis. Even though they had multiple generators and chillers, we installed a VTScada upgrade. Why? They needed something less complicated so their facility staff could more easily track the system’s efficiency. They didn’t have an engineering staff that would constantly monitor the system. They had people with other responsibilities who needed to be able to use trending and analysis tools without a significant amount of specialized training. 

Our VTScada upgrade included a high-performance human-machine interface (HMI) with gauges as opposed to just digital numbers on display. With gauges, an operator can see if a system is operating in a desired range – Low, Normal, High. With our healthcare customer, we want to draw an operator’s attention only to issues that require action. The information on the display will also provide them with contextual information to help them make the correct decisions about what actions to take.

In another example, we have a large banking customer who needed a SCADA upgrade that improved security while also being flexible and scalable. We migrated them to an Ignition system that allowed them to integrate multiple facilities over several years. The unlimited software licensing also allowed them to expand the number of users as needed without breaking the bank.

Open for future business.

Another important point that we touched on earlier is open architecture. As an expert in SCADA retrofits, Affinity Energy wants to ensure our customers can continue to upgrade their systems. By implementing open architecture software, our customers will be able to take advantage of new best-of-breed software upgrades. There are many elements to consider, including security and encryption, remote log-in, OT and IT integration, communication protocols, and overall connectivity. As new and improved products/services come on the market, Affinity Energy customers are prepared to take advantage of what will make their SCADA more effective and secure.

Contact us today to discuss your options in upgrading or replacing your SCADA system.